Educational research and development in four OECD countries

1
Educational research and development in four OECD
countries

• Allyson Macdonald
• Iceland University of Education
• 28th February 2005

2
OECD/CERI reviews

• Reviews of educational research and development
  (ERD)
• New Zealand 2001
• England 2002
• Mexico 2003
• Denmark 2004
• Specialist teams

3
Definition of ERD

• Educational research and development (ERD) is
• systematic
• original
• investigation or inquiry and
• associated development activities

4
Researchers
The status of the researcher
Practitioners
Policy-makers
5
Concerns of ERD
6
Producers and users of knowledge

• Information society, learning society, knowledge
  society
• Information management, knowledge management
• The value of knowledge lies in its use
• Knowledge base ? successful innovation
• assumed in the OECD approach
• The ERD reviews thus assessed the extent to which
  researchers and developers within a country are
• producing and applying usable knowledge
• drawing on and actually using that knowledge
• Goal to improve the quality of educational
  practice and policy

7
Reviewing the reviews

• QUESTION
• Who needs - what knowledge - created by whom
  - for whom - for what purpose in what time frame
  - at what cost?
• Generic template (í. matsrammi)
• Ten questions, with subsidiary questions

8
Dimensions of ERD
9
Reviewing the reviews (cont).

• England could be a benchmark of what might be
  possible
• Some similarities with the situation in New
  Zealand and Denmark
• Learn from Mexico not least because of our
  differences

10
ERD in Mexico
11
ERD in New Zealand
12
ERD in Denmark
13
ERD in England
14
ERD in OECD countries
15
Change and responsibility in ERD

• Political and social changes
• Responsibility
• For education
• For education research
• For innovation
• The question of responsibility for education and
  for ERD, not just at local or national level, but
  also in the public and private sectors, could be
  of interest in the Icelandic study

16
ERD strategy and priorities

• A national strategy only found in England
• Linear approach dominates
• Projects are supply-driven, by producers of
  research rather than users
• The England team argued strongly for and
  presented evidence of user-inspired research.
• How can the situation in Iceland be
  characterised? What is the relationship between
  researchers and users, be they policy-makers or
  practitioners?

17
Knowledge gaps in ERD

• Gaps in knowledge vocational education, adult
  education, special needs
• Point of contact between teacher and student
  important
• Size of country should small countries study
  everything?
• The Icelandic study has mapped the areas being
  researched in Iceland the question will thus
  arise on the way forward strong areas, weaker
  areas?

18
Evaluation of and support for ERD

• Choice of topics, value, time-frame and funding
  support
• affect the accumulation of knowledge
• its distribution and impact
• Indications
• good basic research is sometimes being avoided
• good applied research and development is not
  being pursued nor rewarded
• It will be of interest to consider the nature of
  research and development being carried out in
  Iceland and the views of researchers and
  developers on the quality assurance schemes in
  place

19
Capacity building for ERD

• Capacity for ERD is developed in
• Teacher training
• Professional development
• Research training
• All these issues relate to the capacity of a
  country to carry out and use ERD, the capacity to
  manage and use accumulated knowledge. Have
  problems of capacity arisen in Iceland and if so,
  how can they be solved?